Category: My Face

If you know me in real life or have followed me on Instagram for a while, you may know that one of my goals for this year (in addition to going cruelty-free with all of my makeup) was to master the art of red lipstick. This has been an ongoing makeup struggle for me; I continuously chicken out and could not bring myself to go out in public with red lipstick. Do not ask me to explain this to you because I do not have any logical response. I am comfortable with fluorescent pink, practically glowing orange, and just about every other color on the planet and yet red was something I did not feel brave enough for. Well, I finally did it! This past Saturday night, heading out for a birthday dinner with The Boyfriend and our OBF (Oregon Best Friends), I finally wore red lipstick in public! I thought I’d share the look with you guys including a full product list and text-tutorial. Let me know if you enjoy this format, I will try to do it more often.

On the subject of cruelty-free, I should note that this is still a work in progress. I have found some really amazing cruelty-free replacement for products I loved, some of them even much more affordable than what I was originally using. However, there are some products for which I have not yet found a cruelty-free replacement. I would also like to add that while I am not planning to buy any more natural hair brushes, makeup brushes are quite an investment and I will not be getting rid of natural hair brushes that I already owned. The decision was not made lightly.

Products listed in order of my personal application.

SKIN – perhaps the most important part of your makeup, even more important than the makeup itself, is prepping your skin. To me that includes moisturizer, primer, and any other skin treatments I deem necessary (if I’m going for a daytime look that usually includes a vitamin C serum and sunscreen).

Drunk ElephantB-Hydra Intensive Hydration Gel – This is my go-to daytime/pre-makeup moisturizer, two little pumps is more than enough and it absorbs quickly so it doesn’t disturb makeup application.

EYES – So I can focus on making my eyeshadow look the way I want it to instead of worrying about making a mess, I always do my eye makeup before moving on to foundation, concealer, etc.

MAC CosmeticsPro Longwear Paint Pot in Painterly – this is my ride or die eyeshadow primer, I have been using it for close to three years at this point, and it takes me pretty close to a full year to get through one jar! I like to apply this with my finger all over the mobile lid and up to my brow bone and then lightly set it with a translucent powder. This is one of the only items in my entire makeup collection that I still have not found a cruelty-free replacement for, I will happily accept any recommendations!

Marc JacobsEye-Conic eyeshadow palette in Scandalust – I applied “At The Office” into the crease with my MAC 224, blending it out about halfway up to my brow bone and then using whatever was left on the brush to add some more definition around the lid. Using a Smith 230, I worked “That’s Why” a little tighter into the crease focusing on the outer portion of the eye and blending slightly into the outer 1/3 of the mobile lid. Finally, I used a MAC 221 (possibly my favorite brush of all time) to lightly add “Little Miss” to the outer v, gradually building and blending to develop a smooth gradient with a more dramatic outer corner.

I’ve gotten a lot of questions …and comments …and unsolicited advice about the scar on my nose so I thought I’d address all of those things once and for all right here. (My apologies if some of the photos aren’t super clear, they were not taken with this post in mind.)

Here’s how it happened (I’ll add a divider if you just want to skip ahead to the actual taking care of my scar part).

This past fall (2016), The Boyfriend and I temporarily took care of my family’s dog. This is Caesar. He’s 11, and we call him CheeseDoodle. It’s a long story.

Due to probable puppy mill inbreeding and unfortunate circumstance, Caesar is a purebred dog and has had a bit of a rough life in terms of medical catastrophes. This is pretty common with purebreds, and is another great reason to adopt instead of shop, but I didn’t have that lecture prepared when my parents surprised us with a four pound puppy in 2006.

Among Caesar’s many medical adventures, and common with many floppy-eared dog breeds, my buddy is prone to ear infections. Unfortunately, dogs can’t really say “hey I’m pretty sure I have an ear infection,” but they will absolutely let you know by biting you on the face if you hurt his ear while snuggling.

So, yeah, all that to say – Caesar wasn’t feeling so hot and he bit my face. It was my fault, but it sucked nevertheless. I got a tetanus shot and ten days of antibiotics, but no stitches.

The Boyfriend requested a “bright surprise” for a recent date night and I delivered. I loved the balance of super bright eyes with pretty neutral lips (which is a favorite move for nights out so I can still eat whatever I want). This is not a tutorial, but I often get asked about which products I’m using so I thought I’d share a full product list for one of my go-to styles. These photos have not been edited in any way.

The “no makeup” makeup trend definitely isn’t new, but it’s pretty new for me (or at least, making it look good is new for me). The idea behind the “no makeup” look is a semi-flawless complexion with a few simple products to highlight particular features while ultimately looking like you are not really wearing a full face of makeup.

Come warm weather, this is a super versatile look that can fit almost any daytime occasion once you figure out which areas of your face you want to accentuate. One thing I’ve discovered can be a big help with such a natural look is to go a bit monochromatic if possible, using a contrasting shade to your eyecolor. With my hazel eyes, a peachy-orange look really helps them pop behind my glasses.

For me, the two main things to take care of for a look like this are brows and lashes. Since I wear glasses with thick plastic frames, it’s important to highlight my brows so they don’t get lost in my face, and my lashes to help my eyes look bigger and brighter. However, because this is such a natural look, I think it’s only natural to have some “flaws” showing or you’ll risk looking too made up; I usually skip the undereye concealer since I would rather cover up any blemishes/acne.

Here are the products I use for my warm weather natural makeup look (in order of application):

The Body Shop Vitamin E Moisture Cream – I am slowly becoming a complete convert to this cream over the seaweed mattifying day cream I was previously obsessed with. Since I’m going very light on the face makeup, it’s important to have my skin looking its best on its own and hydration is key. I use this cream before bed and before I do my makeup every day for soft, hydrated skin which also helps minimize creasing makeup in the under-eye area.

Budget Beauty Tip: The Body Shop often sells their creams in smaller jars advertising a 3-for-$10 deal (or $4 each). The full size of this cream is $18 for 1.7 oz. Buy the travel size/mini jars instead – three of them will net you 1.5 oz for a savings of $8 and it will be a bit more hygienic too since you won’t have to stick your fingers in the same jar for as long.

Makeup Geek eyeshadow, Barcelona Beach – I use an angled brow brush and a tiny bit of this gorgeous matte shadow to fill in my brows before brushing in Benefit’s Gimme Brow tinted brow gel to keep them in place (I use the shade medium/deep).

Budget Beauty Tip: Got your eye on a gorgeous eyeshadow from MAC? Check out the Makeup Geek catalog for near-perfect dupes before you splurge – Marlena’s stunning shadows are only $5.99 for 1.8 grams compared to $16 for MAC’s 1.5 grams. Even the MAC pro palette refill pans will run you $10.

I’ll have to get into the full story at a later date, but long story short: if you love makeup and wear glasses, share your pics on any social media platform and tag them with #FOUREYEDMUA. You can also follow the @FourEyedMUA account on Twitter (that’s me). Let’s work together to build a better community for makeup-loving bespectacled beauties!

I posted my first “spring makeup look” of the season earlier today and had several people ask me for a blog post, and I suppose I should give the people what they want! So here’s a little run down of today’s look and my current spring favorites.

There are a few basic items that are on every “essentials” list I will ever put together as they are my “HG” (Holy Grail) products: Too Faced Hangover RX primer, MAC Pro Longwear Paint Pot, MAC Pro Longwear concealer, and tinted brow gel – right now I’m using Benefit Gimme Brow in medium/deep. You can see these as well as the rest of my face prep routine here.

Now that the sun is shining and a fresh face feels a little nicer, I’ve switched up a few steps in my routine for a lighter, more natural look.